HELLO & GOODBYE, JOSH’S EM1

Hey guys, I guess I’ve never really officially introduced myself so I thought now would be the perfect time. So who is this bloke that gets to have his thoughts projected across the interwebz and why is it his turn to stand on the soapbox? I don’t know really.. but I’m here and my name is Josh and I own this Honda Civic Coupe.

I met Winson not too long ago, randomly one night at the Holy Grail of all JDM.. Cabramatta Hungry Jacks. You may even call it the Daikoku Futo of Australia.. Ha! I was admiring his Blue and White Instant Gentleman Widebody S15 which he is notoriously known for taking so damn long to paint, when he approached me to see if i was interested in having my car featured.

Anyways.. a short time later he advertised a writing position available for SC, emails were sent and ignored (LOL) but here I am today. So here it is Winson, the feature you had been asking for!

My build has covered a span of roughly 3 years and has been through many phases. Being my first car the aim was to have it looking nice and driving well. At the time, the Stance scene hadn’t quite blown up to how big it is today, so I was keen to be one of the first. Now I’ve never been a fan of replica wheels but sometimes you just have to make do, a cheap set of Rota Grid V’s popped up and i thought to myself what the hell, why not. A good option for a poor uni student like myself and they were only ever intended to be temporary. I guess you can call it a “Rags to Riches” story.. Haha!

In that time obviously more mods were done to accommodate the look, Tein Coilover’s, Hardrace Camber arms.. the usual. I also upgraded the brakes to DC2R items because who doesn’t want a little more stopping power.

Fast forward some time and this set of mint BBS RS had come up for sale on JDMST. They’ve always been one of my favourite wheels and the timing was perfect. So I drove out to Canberra to get them from what seemed like a nice bloke but ended up to be not so much. I was told all the centre caps would be included but conveniently he had misplaced them in his other car an had reassured that he would post them to me. Suprise suprise they never arrived. So if you’re ever dealing with a bloke named “Dallas” from Canberra, steer clear.

Now I had my wheels it was time to get to work on them! Ray from RAW Works was the man to hit up for new lips straight from Germany. 2.5″ was chosen for the front and 3″ for the rears. He also helped me purchase centre hexes and centre caps which I now needed to replace. I wondered what colour scheme would look good on black. Something that stood out but neither tacky or garish. The classic Prima Donna BBS was chosen to be my inspiration. So off the faces and waffle plates went for a fresh coat. And for my unique spin, Gold spike hardware for the bolts.

Now with the rims done, I had to freshen up the body from carpark prangs. So off it went to Innovative Autobody for some body work. I had set myself a deadline for the 2012 JDMYARD End of Year meet. It was a mad rush but luckily it was all done in time and i was able to make my debut, which got me a few photos up on The Chronicles – one of the most influential Honda Blogs out there.

It stayed like this for awhile but something just wasn’t right. It wasn’t low enough as I had wanted it. At max drop on my coilovers there was still too much wheel gap. Sigh.. I told to myself to scrap it and move onto a new project as i was soon to get my full license anyways. My fellow Team Break Even crew members were also getting into track days at that time so i thought, F*ck it why not, lets get a track day out of it and really enjoy the brake and suspension setup I had. The Intake, Headers and Exhaust, as well as swaybars were upgraded already so it had be done!

A set of Enkei RS 2 piece were acquired and some second hand semi slicks and i was off! Wakefield Park was an amazing experience and it made me fall in love with my car again. For a first timer I managed to stay around the 1:17’s (unofficial) before my brakes started to fade.

But there was still that itch I had yet to scratch. The Lowdown’s Showcased was coming up and I had really enjoyed it last year, easily Sydney’s best car show at the moment. I was still planning to sell my car so again I thought YOLO, let’s have one last hurrah and do it right! So the BBS went under the knife again. 4″ lips to replace the 2.5’s. And i decided to go all white, as there have been a lot of polish lip replicas rolling around these days.

The front end needed a makeover too, Chargespeed Style Lip and shaved bumper was in order for that beefy agression.

Now the crucial part.. how would I acquire dem extra lows? I didn’t want to fork out for another set of coilovers so I was racking my brain. Remove the extra collars for a little more low? Play around with the preload on the spring? I didn’t like any of these shortcut options. But like a sign sent from above, I had a friend in the US put up a set of Suspension Techniques Drop Forks and Lower Control Arms for sale. Mind you these have been long discontinued. They replace the stock items and allow for extra low without sacrificing suspension travel. Needless to say they were mine.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there though, I had received my BBS lips back from the painter and had carelessly damaged them in transport. So off they went back to be fixed. Again this was about 1 week out from Showcased, and I was busy with uni assessments as well. The Suspension Techniques gear still had to go in, when I received them they looked peculiarly smaller and my friend had already told me they needed to be modified slightly. So I brought them to my good friend James at ISON Industries and we indeed confirmed they were not a straight fit.

James being the king of DIY, retrofitted EG front control arms with EK bushings in order to get the forks in. And they fit up perfectly, I couldn’t commend his work more. The LCA’s were luckily a straight fit and 2 nights before showcased the camber was dialed up and the car dropped on its arse. Working til 4 am it was a struggle, but so worth it. It had now sat perfectly, just how I wanted it to.

Lip to guard fitment on the rears, with a bucket of camber. The final specs of the wheels being 15 x 8.5J +6 and 15 x 9J -1. The bar was then fitted and given a good detail. It was an awesome day at Showcased with many commending my efforts, I had just missed out on the Best Stance award though, runner up to Josh Sohn’s R32 Golf. Not a bad effort for a static car I guess!

Unfortunately, merely 1 week after the show i had been defected. I had it cleared and left it home for a couple days and slammed it again. The first day back out I was defected straight away coming home from work. Yellow Label with 2 hours to get off the road. I knew I wouldn’t be able to play this game any longer. Too much police presence on our roads with a target on our backs. I had learnt my lesson. You can’t stunt this hard and expect to get away with it anymore. Luckily I had this photo shoot done while I could, so a big thanks to Joseph, I couldn’t be more grateful. But I am happy to have accomplished my goal and gone out with a bang, I did my car justice and have no regrets. So please look forward to my next build. 🙂

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About the author

Howdy guys, your Ed here. I’m currently studying a bachelor of Industrial Design, but have a love for all things design. The automotive industry is my life blood and I’d love for you all to join along for the ride!